All major nurse theorists have emphasized the need to understand patients' perspectives. Nightingale was among the first to recognize this need. However, she also said it was difficult to obtain this information. Because nurses' actions are based on their understanding of patients' needs, nurses can most effectively help patients if they correctly understand patients' perceived needs. Common understanding between nurses and patients will provide the most effective base for nurses' clinical decision- making. This phenomenologically based study will seek to obtain a better understanding of how surgical patients experience hospitalization. It will also clarify nurses' perceptions of these patients' experience of both their hospitalization and the nursing care they receive. These perceptions will allow a comparison to find both areas of agreement and areas on incongruence. This study both replicates and extends prior research examining patients' experience of hospitalization for surgery. A final report will be published and distributed to each hospital involved in this research. This, together with involvement of nursing staff from each of the hospitals in the research, will enhance their ability to use this information as an effective base for decision-making to improve nursing care.